Tynan said authorities are investigating whether today's incident is related to the North Warren discoveries or possibly a copycat situation.

"We don't know and that's what we're hoping that doesn't happen, that people think that this is something that's funny to do," he said, calling such incidents a waste of resources.

"We're always going to err on the side of caution no matter what it is because we always take everything seriously, especially around a school area," he said. "It will still be part of our investigation. We will look into every avenue to see if we can determine where it came from."

While teaching continued, students and staff were confined to classrooms for much of the morning. The incident began between 7 and 8 a.m. and everything was back to normal by about 11:30 a.m., Superintendent David Mango said on the town police Facebook page.